China will release 15,000 metric tons of frozen pork from state reserves on Saturday, according to a notice by the reserves management center.
Reuters reports the state planner said it planned to release some reserve pork to keep prices stable ahead of the upcoming holiday, National Day, on Oct. 1. The nation’s staple meat, pork, typically rises in demand during the holidays.
“Pork prices have surged in recent months, a concern for Beijing at a time of slowing economic growth,” Reuters wrote on Tuesday.
The price of Chinese pork surged to a new high in August, The Guardian wrote. Pork costs rose an average of 22.5% last month in China, compared with 2021. This followed the highest recorded month-on-month increase of 25.6% in July, as CPI also hit a two-year high of 2.7%.
Increased prices are attributed to high demand, the high cost of feed and the lagging impact of reduction in the breeding herd last year. Because of several COVID-19 outbreaks, Chinese residents have also been discouraged from travel and have been at home cooking more, The Guardian wrote.
An expert in pig production monitoring and early warnings at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences told The Guardian when the price of pork is low and the farmers lose severely, the government will boost the price of pigs by collecting and storing pork. But when the prices rise, the government will attempt to stabilize the price of pigs by releasing reserves.
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